LastMinuteLucie and the search for time

Posts tagged ‘heart’

I’ve been having a bit of a tidy – as you do when there is a million other things you MUST get done before the beginning of term – and I came across this piece (instructions I think came for Guiding Magazine) that I made as an example for the Guides.

Each of the girls made one, thinking about the part of our Promise that is about being true to yourself. There were various quotes available to add or they could write their own.

With the New Year in mind and the committment and creative thinking that will be required of me in 2015, this seemed even more appropriate.

I have continued to have a lovely time going through my make do and mend box and now own several more wearable pairs of trousers and shorts after some mending and cutting – it’s amazing how easily you forget what you own when the items are languishing out of sight.

In amongst the waiting items were two of Lovely Husband’s old grey t-shirts. He had a habit of buying lots of the same item in the past which turned out to be great for me when he put them out for the second hand bag.

With Oldest Daughter on her summer holiday earlier than Youngest Daughter I decided to find her something creative to do, so I gave her a heart shaped stamp, some fabric paint and the t-shirts (with cardboard inside) and told her to stamp away.

When the pattern was dry and ironed to fix, I used the t-shirts as fabric to make her a new summer dress. I literally laid her favourite dress onto the t-shirt; first the top half (adding a few inches as she is ever-growing)

and then the skirt part onto the second t-shirt. I had to wiggle it about here to make it fit, so the swish is slightly less, but it still works.

I then simply sewed the pieces together and hemmed the skirt, neck and armholes.

As you can see it looks pretty and fits well. I think oldest daughter is pleased.

I have been mulling this over for a while and, as I am pretty sure my talented neice doesn’t read my blog, I am going to put this up now.

Talented neice is a tattooist – she does the most amazing drawings and is branching out into t-shirts. I am a very proud auntie.

I took one of her more classic tattoo designs and appliqued it onto a bought throw. I just wanted to tip my hat at the lovely work she does while giving her a present she can actually use. I am quite pleased with it (it is the thing that kept me up til 3am) though it could probably have been neater and given less thinking and more doing time I may have chosen different materials.

I have always liked the idea that the fabrics we use in our everyday lives carry more meaning than their function. Patchwork quilts are the prime example of this; using pieces of fabric that come from worn clothing. Pieces that are representative of others past and present.

With this in mind I have used the fabric from the top I wore to get married in to make a cushion; a long overdue keepsake – I’ve been married five and a half years now and the top has been in pretty constant use for three of those – using the heart shaped cushion that my grandmother made me when I was a teenager. See…two sets of past making a present and future item.

I got married in a black trouser suit (I always said I would and no-one believed me)with this black and white top. The cushion used to have a very boudoir-esque red cover with black lace edging, which has long since gone to the charity shop.

I cut the bottom portion off the top and sewed the back and front pieces together to make a squarer piece of fabric, before drawing round the cushion, adding a seam allowance.

I found a piece of black material in my stash-an old dress given to me by my sister-in-law and cut out the two back pieces with added length for the overlap.

I finished the straight edges of the black pieces and then sewed the pieces, right sides facing, together before clipping the curves and turning right side out

and here it is – my wedding/grandma keepsake cushion. I’ve considered doing this for at least 2 of the years I’ve been married and it took me 45 minutes to make!

It seems there are any number of reasons why the tomato was called a love apple in the dim and distant past – from it’s apparent aphrodisiac qualities to a linguistic error – a mishearing of pomi dei mori, or apple of the Moor.
I wonder if the shape of the insides had any bearing…

They are Friday’s breakfast if we get up early enough, because that’s the day we don’t have to go to Breakfast Club.

They are the reward for tidying your bedroom on a Saturday morning.

They take time to make – the measuring (or in my case guessing until it feels right) of ingredients, the standing time, the heating of the pan to ‘just right’, the standing over the stove watching for the right moment to flip each little morsel and judging when they are perfect for stacking.

They are a labour of love.

So when I turned a pancake and saw this heart I felt that the love I put in had a physical form.

Another week has gone by and while I haven’t completed a whole creative project I feel I have made time to do tasks that could come under the creative banner – it was nice to cross them off my ever expanding List and creativity comes in many different guises after all.

Some months ago I bought a pair of Long Tall Sally trousers in a second hand shop in Bishops Waltham when visiting my Uncle. They were a perfect fit around the waist and hips and a gorgeous navy blue, which made a change from black and grey.

Not being long or tall – or indeed called Sally – they were about six inches too long. This weekend I measured them up against some trousers that are the right length, cut off the excess and hemmed them. Perfect! Why it took me so long to get round to it I don’t know, but it took 45 minutes at the most to do.

Another sewing job was Guide badges onto my daughter’s uniform – I know, I know, she’s supposed to do it herself, but I think we both wanted them on her uniform before she moved onto Senior Section in 2016 or so – and she’ll get plenty of practise doing her camp blanket. I recently splashed out on a magnifier/daylight light and I have to say that it was perfect for working by tonight. No squinty eyeballs after sewing and I got to decide how the badges were positioned. Hurrah!

Finally, I remembered I had a camera on my phone (not a new thing, but I rarely use it) when I came across this broadbean in my minestrone. Had to be captured for posterity obviously.